


Halo of Flames

by InvincibleRodent



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Canon Compliant, Drabble, Dwarf Appreciation Week 2016, Established Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 21:45:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7657840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InvincibleRodent/pseuds/InvincibleRodent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the split second after she says "I love you", a number of thoughts go through Bull's head.</p><p>(Based on the dialogue following the direct option in the "watchword" cutscene.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Halo of Flames

**Author's Note:**

> Drabble written for Cadash day of this year's dwarf appreciation week; cross-posted from tumblr. :) [Here's the original post,](http://weresquirrel.tumblr.com/post/147895408326/character-profile-character-tag-pinterest) complete with links and images, if you'd like to see the character. :) (the screenshots are NSFW. There's a nipple. Thought I should mention. :))

The words slapped thought out of him, tossed his mind into cacophonous silence, as if an orchestra had stopped playing without having been instructed to. Instruments dropped, strings snapped, brass wailed, condensed into but a breath. **  
**

She loves him.

She said it so easily. Lips stained red by waxy oil curled around the syllables, and her words slipped sizzling through the adorable gap between her front teeth- her voice chased the end of his own with such simplicity, such ease, to the untrained ear it would have sounded as if they had only been discussing the weather. But there she was, glorious and naked, sunset skin shining, shimmering with a sheen of sweat, dark emotion tinting bliss behind burnt browns, and she looked at him, gaze prying, waiting, scalding.

This gorgeous creature, this brave, bold, blithe woman now naked in both body and heart, loves him. Him, the Tal-Vashoth. The mercenary. Hissrad, who had lied to her and then didn’t, who had used her but then didn’t, who cared for her, then didn’t, then did again.

Bull loosed a warm chuckle. His eye searched her face for hesitation, for regret, for anything of the sort, but found none, giving room to expectation, and sincerity, and in the heartbeat of a pause between her words and his, the corner of her lip twitched upward, as if in encouragement. As if saying _“go on, big guy. I can wait.”_

She loves him.

She loves him, and she knew before he could have thought it that he loves her too, loves her just the same. She always did, always saw just a bit deeper than he would have liked her to, made him feel just a little bit more naked, a little bit vulnerable in a way he had never before been, and looking at her now… “You going soft on me, Kadan?” he said, and blunt fingers still smelling of her tucked a rashvine-red tress behind her ear.

A long pause stretched between the two then, filled only by the soft sound of the breath she then let out as she laid her cheek into his sword-marred, coarse-skinned palm, for just one second allowing her eyes to flutter shut. There was no need for an answer. She hadn’t gone soft, she had allowed him to see her softness, and he, the lovestruck fool he was, didn’t know what to do with it.

Maybe this is it. Her permission for him to be soft as well, to meet her love with his own. Maybe, and the mattress creaked under his weight as he shifted his body over hers, arms bracketing her in a loose cage, and the smile now breaks her face in half- that sweet, wide, silly smile that he so adores, and wild red hair sprawls around her face like a halo of flames.

She loves him. And damn it, he loves her too.

**Author's Note:**

> The title may yet change, I'm definitely open to suggestions! :)
> 
> I have a [a tumblr](http://www.weresquirrel.tumblr.com) , in case anyone is interested! :) Prompts and feedback are always welcome. <3


End file.
